‘The new phone books are here!’

I feel like Steve Martin in the movie, “The Jerk” when he jumped up and down and shouted: “The new phone book’s here. The new phone book’s here!”

“The signs are up. The signs are up!” is what I am shouting. White Rock Lake Weekly is now the proud Adopt a Highway Sponsor of the stretch of Northwest Highway (Spur 244) between Buckner Blvd. and Jupiter Road. The newspaper and its devoted volunteers are charged with keeping that two-mile radius of the roads clean from here on out.

With the help of For the Love of the Lake (FTLOTL), our volunteers plus their volunteers should make quite an impact on the neighborhood. If you don’t already know, FTLOTL is the nonprofit organization devoted to White Rock Lake. They organize regular clean-ups, tree plantings and they also raise money for needed improvements to White Rock Lake Park. If you’d like to join us on one of our missions to improve our city by picking up trash, please email me at editor@whiterocklakeweekly.com. For more information about FTLOTL and their ongoing efforts, visit whiterocklake.org.

I’m not as excited about our other adoption, though. My teenager and I ended up keeping the 55 lb. “puppy” they found back in November. We actually located the original owner, too, who turned out to be a 13-year-old boy who lived down the street. He’d lost the dog a month earlier, or so he thought.

The boy posted his lost dog on Pawboost.com, which is where I stumbled across the listing. With no microchip and no collar, we had been caring for her until we could find her owner or a forever home. When we contacted the boy saying we had found his dog, he cried tears of joy. We reunited them that afternoon only to receive a message three hours later. The boy pleaded via text: “My dad just got home, and he is furious. You have to come get the dog right now!”

It turns out his father — who had bought him the puppy when it was two-months-old — took the dog off in his truck one day while his son was at school and abandoned the dog by the side of the road.

He told the boy the dog got out and ran away. Animals being as smart as they are, this young dog had made its way back to our neighborhood, where my child found her. Now we have rescued the animal, and the young boy comes over to our house often to visit “his” dog.

Before you adopt a dog, or cat or any animal, PLEASE take into consideration the responsibilities of pet ownership. Puppies like to play. They chew EVERYTHING. And they like to pee anywhere and everywhere anytime. Then they grow up, and should be easier to care for.But they still require walking and feeding and picking up huge bags full of poop every day.

Maybe you’re thinking you would much prefer picking up trash along the highway! Either way, adopting a highway or an animal both require responsibility. Of course, both can be rewarding too.